Friday, February 25, 2011

Lifestyle and Self-Promotional Headshots

There are many challenges with portraiture and so many different types of portraiture within photography that I could easily spend a whole career on just portraiture and be completely fulfilled. Taking Headshots is one specific area of portraiture that you can spend a lot of time developing a career becoming successful at. It can be extremely simple yet full of emotion. There is a common structure as far as formal portraiture goes, but they can also be extremely fun and interactive. The dynamics of each person and the emotions they are capable of expressing just through their faces makes portraiture and specifically headshots so interesting. I have a young portfolio in my more recent studied headshot work, but I really enjoy the room to grow and progress towards a well rounded portfolio and understanding of the extent of what headshots can be. In general, I have a broad interest in portraiture and photography so I want to be a little more liberal when it comes to headshots. I am willing to create less formal headshots, including some lifestyles into the composition or using a subtle promotion as the background of a portrait is something I like to create. Of course for the client, it is the most important to create an image that is common to what they would like to communicate in their own headshots. Most of the time, clients may not have a set expectation of how their headshots should look other than what they have seen before in the typical corporate/school directory photos and what they want to use their headshots for. I have no problem meeting those expectations, but I love a playful client willing to incorporate a little more personality into their headshots. Given the opportunity, I will play with the boundaries. Right now I love experimenting with my own work and learning from other's work so that I continue to grow into both the more conservative art of headshots and the creative sides of experimenting with portraiture. This is another aspect of my love for photography, the room to grow, learn, experiment, and get better.